House Republican Says 'Donald Trump Has Never Been About Retribution'

A House Republican lawmaker said in an interview Thursday that President-elect Donald Trump isn't interested in vengeance or retribution.

The discussion with Fox Business arrived after reports that President Joe Biden is weighing the issuance of preemptive pardons to officials who could be targeted by the incoming second Trump administration.

According to Politico, among those under consideration for pardons are California U.S. Representative Adam Schiff, who recently won a Senate election in his state; former Wyoming U.S. Representative Liz Cheney; retired Army General Mark Milley; and Dr. Anthony Fauci.

"This is ridiculous," Ohio U.S. Representative Jim Jordan told Fox Business host Larry Kudlow. "Donald Trump has never been about retribution. Donald Trump has been stopping these agencies from being weaponized against we, the people, and frankly from being weaponized against him and all the law-fare that we saw unfold, where Fani Willis, Alvin Bragg and Jack Smith went after President Trump on ridiculous things that we all know were just that: ridiculous. So, that's always been President Trump's position."

Willis, Georgia's Fulton County district attorney; Bragg, Manhattan's district attorney; and Smith, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) special counsel, all brought criminal cases against Trump. Bragg's office secured a 34-count conviction of Trump in New York this year.

The president-elect has frequently and publicly called for his critics and law enforcement officials to be prosecuted and jailed. Over the summer, he amplified a post on his social media website, Truth Social, calling for Cheney—a longtime Trump critic who was vice chairwoman of a House panel that investigated the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol—to face a military tribunal.

"ELIZABETH LYNNE CHENEY IS GUILTY OF TREASON," the post, from another Truth Social user, said. "RETRUTH IF YOU WANT TELEVISED MILITARY TRIBUNALS." Trump re-shared the post.

Another post that Trump magnified the same day displayed 15 photos of current and former elected officials who have all been in the president-elect's crosshairs, saying: "THEY SHOULD BE GOING TO JAIL ON MONDAY NOT STEVE BANNON."

Among others, the post featured photos of Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former Vice President Mike Pence and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Schiff has also frequently drawn the president-elect's ire and spearheaded the 2019 impeachment proceedings against Trump.

In a post to X at the time, Trump demanded that Schiff be "questioned at the highest level for Fraud & Treason," claiming his "lies were made in perhaps the most blatant and sinister manner ever seen in the great Chamber."

"Rep. Adam Schiff illegally made up a FAKE & terrible statement, pretended it to be mine as the most important part of my call to the Ukrainian President, and read it aloud to Congress and the American people," Trump wrote the next day. "It bore NO relationship to what I said on the call. Arrest for Treason?"

Fauci also had a fraught relationship with Trump during his first term while serving as a top adviser on the COVID-19 pandemic, and a number of high-profile Trump surrogates have repeatedly called for him to be arrested.

"My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci," Elon Musk posted on X in 2022.

"Dr. Fauci flat-out lied to Congress," Texas U.S. Senator Ted Cruz wrote that same year. "Yet Merrick Garland and the Biden DOJ won't prosecute."

Shortly after Trump won a second term, Musk tweeted, "My pronouns are still prosecute/Fauci."

"I agree!" Georgia U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a prominent conspiracy theorist and Trump loyalist, wrote in response to Musk. "I told Dr. Fauci to his face that he should be in jail and prosecuted for his crimes against humanity."

Milley served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during Trump's first term but has since emerged as a sharp critic.

He appeared to allude to Trump in his retirement speech in September 2023, saying, "We don't take an oath to a king, or a queen, to a tyrant or dictator or wannabe dictator."

Milley's comments came shortly after Trump suggested he be tried for treason when it surfaced that Milley held backchannel discussions with his counterpart in China about America's stability during Trump's efforts to stay in power.

Milley's actions, Trump wrote, were "so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!"

The retired general offered a much more blunt assessment of Trump in recent comments to veteran news reporter Bob Woodward, telling Woodward that Trump is "fascist to the core" and warning that he is "the most dangerous person to this country."

Newsweek reached out to a Trump spokesperson for comment Thursday.